Present day farming is a highly developed industry wherein numerous special purpose machines are often employed to perform different functions. In general, many of these machines are self-contained and employ their own power and vehicle units including an engine, power transmission system, hydraulic system, wheels, controls, and an operator's console, in addition to their special purpose attachment. For example, equipment is available for use in cutting, conditioning, and laying a hay crop in ground swaths or windrows to promote drying thereof; and different equipment is available for picking up the dried ground swaths of hay crop and delivering same to a forage chopper. Still other equipment has been proposed for cutting, gathering and delivering corn stover and sorghum stover to a forage chopper.
However, it has been shown that it is economically advantageous to provide a basic type of power and vehicle unit, such as a forage harvester, for example, which is adapted to have articulated therewith a number of attachments each capable of fully harvesting or performing a special harvesting operation on a particular forage crop. As an expansion of this basic concept, it would be advantageous to provide a multi-purpose attachment for a harvester which attachment may be used in harvesting and/or performing a harvesting operation on a plurality of forage crops.